more lighting for small parking lot

[electrofelon]

I have a client that has a small parking lot - maybe 80X120. There are 3 light poles existing that have a shoebox fixture, probably HPS, not sure what wattage. He wanted more lighting and was talking about having me add 2 more LED fixtures to each pole, as well as two more poles each with 3 fixtures, for a total of 12 new fixtures. Just anticipating that I would put a bunch of work in to a proposal and it would be too much money, I recommended just gutting the ballast and using a screw in LED retrofit and see how that looks. It just seems like it gets into a much larger hassle to add new fixtures to a pole and the cost of the fixtures gets up there pretty quick. I told him ballpark to figure $300 for a new shoebox fixture, while a screw in LED retrofit would be $250 (just parts). I am not real up on parking lot lighting or fixtures, just looking for some recommendations. Thanks.

 

[ActionDave]

Our shop swapped out some 75W HPS guts with some screw in LEDs. I did not do the work, but the guy who did said it was not just a simple swap. He had to do some fitting and fiddling with the reflector to get the everything to fit. I can't see it being worse than adding a new light on an existing pole.

The customer is happy with the new lights. At night the parking lot doesn't look like a weird, low budget science fiction movie any more.

 

[mgookin]

I have a client that has a small parking lot - maybe 80X120. There are 3 light poles existing that have a shoebox fixture, probably HPS, not sure what wattage. He wanted more lighting and was talking about having me add 2 more LED fixtures to each pole, as well as two more poles each with 3 fixtures, for a total of 12 new fixtures. Just anticipating that I would put a bunch of work in to a proposal and it would be too much money, I recommended just gutting the ballast and using a screw in LED retrofit and see how that looks. It just seems like it gets into a much larger hassle to add new fixtures to a pole and the cost of the fixtures gets up there pretty quick. I told him ballpark to figure $300 for a new shoebox fixture, while a screw in LED retrofit would be $250 (just parts). I am not real up on parking lot lighting or fixtures, just looking for some recommendations. Thanks.

Money is not always the most important factor.

In reading your post it sounds like he's wanting to mix HID & LED lighting in the same parking lot. You may want to mention that might come out with a strange appearance.

How about changing out all his fixtures to some new LED fixtures (or retrofits) which put out more light at the same or lower wattage. That way you might get away with no new poles. Tell him how nice the new LED lighting looks.

If you give him a proposal for his idea, and another proposal for whatever best practices idea you come up with, he'll likely appreciate that.

Without knowing the height of the poles and the spacing, whether you have floods or cobraheads, etc. there's not much anyone can advise on from the other end of a message board other than presenting some ideas.

A photometric plan would be the best presentation you could provide. A lighting manufacturer or supplier may do that for you gratis.

 

[electrofelon]

Thanks. Yeah I know its hard to give any concrete recommendations without a better idea of what is going on. The client seems really adamant about needing more lights, so with that in mind I like the idea of trying to get away without adding more poles - that just seems like a PIA considering I know he will want me to do the concrete work - so maybe Ill replace the fixtures that are there and add a few to each pole and see how that works. Thinking something on an arm will spread it out a bit since there may be three fixtures on a pole. If he wants more poles after that so be it.

 

[brantmacga]

Are you talking about something like a corn lamp? I wouldn't do any LED conversion on a lot lighting fixture; the reflectors in LED site lighting are made specifically for that job and are a big part of their performance, and I don't think you or the customer will be happy with the outcome. Also, I don't think an LED of equal lumen output would even fit into the fixture correctly. If so it would probably be tight, and the lamp will probably fail sooner than expected.

We've done HID to LED sign lighting conversions with mogul base lamps, and those lamps have built in cooling fans and need room to breathe.

I would try a double-tenon bracket w/ two LED fixtures on each pole; maybe up the angle slightly so the beam spreads a little further over the lot. Probably wouldn't even have to do that.